Deep thoughts from the high north.

Flip-flops replaced by laceups.

Yes, sensible shoes were a poignant reminder this morning that my week of vacation was officially over. (Of course, I could wear flip-flops in our office — dress codes are not really the thing around here. It's just that I'm unable to work while staring at my bare, slightly hairy toes. Feels like business-casual gone wildly awry.)

There were some things that struck me while on my week of decidedly retro break in northern Ontario.

I missed a high-speed Internet connection more than I missed television.

Even with a dial-up connection, I gathered more news from the web than from the daily newspaper.

Canada is really ticked off — and I think with good reason — about the refusal of the United States to budge on softwood lumber tariffs. To Canadians, it comes off as NAFTA when it works for the United States. Of course, here in the United States, we hardly even know about it.

There are some truly inane pitches being made on product packaging. My father had an anti-perspirant that boldly announced, "New and improved applicator coming soon!" I wait with bated breath.

One of the world's worst weekly news magazines — and there are no great weekly news magazines — was scathing in its criticism of blogs, expressing the opinion that most were absolute crap. Absolutely true, of course. If only they had noted that their news magazine has also been absolute crap for years.

A toy better than beach sand has yet to be invented.